the delivery of the speech

What is delivery? Think of the telegraph messenger delivering the "wire" into the direct possession of the person for whom it is intended. Similarly, a speaker should deliver his speech right into the minds of the audience. You would have seen in the college speech contests, that it is not always the speaker with the best material who wins, but it is the speaker who can talk so well, that his material sounds the best, wins. The first essential of good talking is a sense of communication. The audience should feel that there is a message being delivered straight from the mind and heart of the speaker into their minds and hearts. Please remember that the audience, whether it is fifteen people in a business conference or a thousand persons assembled in an auditorium, wants the speaker to just talk as directly as he would in a chat or in the same general manner as he would talk to one of them in a conversation. When a person is under the influence of his own feelings and emotion, his real self comes out to the surface. He acts spontaneously. He talks without any effort. He is natural. He doesn't speak, but his heart speaks.. To improve the quality of your delivery: Stress important words. During our normal conversation, we make one or two important words to tower up like skyscrapers, and the other words to subside down like small houses. Do the same thing in public speaking. Change your pitch. During any conversation, our voice would flow up and down in a scale, from the high pitch to the low and back again. It will never rest. The effect is very pleasing and convincing. This is the way of nature. Do this in public speaking. Vary your rate of speaking. In any conversation we constantly change our rate of speaking. It is natural. It is unconscious. In fact it is one of the very best, of all possible ways, to make an idea stand out prominently. If you can vary your rate of speaking, it would attract the attention of the audience. Pause before and after important ideas. When you have an important point or idea, which you want to impress deeply into the minds of the audience, stop talking for a moment, bend forward and look directly into the eyes of as many persons as you could. This sudden silence will have the same effect as that of a sudden noise. It would make everyone attentive, alert and awake to what was coming next. Then raise your voice and deliver the speech.